‘IndiGo crisis was internal planning failure’: Will set an example, says Aviation Minister Ram Mohan

Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu announced that the government will take strict action against anyone who doesn’t comply with guidelines. He said decisions will be taken regarding the IndiGo operational crisis, which will set an example for the future.

Responding to a question raised by Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, Minister Ram Mohan Naidu made it clear that the disruption of services was not related to the AMSS system outage, but a direct result of Indigo’s internal failures.

“The Indigo crisis that we are seeing is due to issues in their crew rostering systems and their internal planning failure,” he said.

How the IndiGo issue unfolded

Speaking about how the IndiGo fiasco went down, the Minister provided a timeline of the events:

- The new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) guidelines, implemented from November 1, following a High Court directive, were introduced only after extensive consultations with all stakeholders. Of the 22 guidelines, 15 were rolled out smoothly on July 1 and the remaining seven on November 1.

- Subsequently, multiple airlines sought operational variations, given their differing requirements such as night operations, northeast-heavy routes and ATR-specific services. The DGCA conducted multiple rounds of consultations and granted permissible variations only after rigorous safety risk assessments.

- There was more than one full month of operations within the new FDTL, also.

- Even on December 1, a meeting was conducted with IndiGo Airlines. Certain clarifications were sought and given by the ministry. Even in this meeting, no challenges were raised to the ministry. No issues were flagged by IndiGo.

- On December 3, once this issue came to the fore (flight cancellations by IndiGo), several difficulties were faced by passengers. Immediate measures were taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the situation has been normalised.

“Safety is non-negotiable. We care for the pilots, crew, system and passengers. The ministry has been very clear that all airlines must follow the rules,” he emphasised.

‘In discussions with other airlines’

Minister Naidu highlighted that DGCA had been in continuous discussions with all airlines throughout November to ensure smooth adaptation to the new norms. After a full month of operations under the revised FDTL rules, it became evident that IndiGo’s challenges were internal and operational in nature.

“This is a day-to-day operations matter that IndiGo should have maintained. They were responsible for managing their crew and roster. Our role is to ensure FDTL compliance — and there has been no compromise on that,” he asserted.